China Business

Jun 21, 2006

Zhejiang uses efficiency to evaluate officials

HANGZHOU - China is encouraging officials to spare some of their attention, usually focused on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, for energy conservation.

Zhejiang, an economically booming province in the country's east, has decided to add energy efficiency to the evaluation system for local officials' performance.

Eleven mayors and 58 county heads in the province have recently been appointed as top officials in charge of local energy-saving work. The new indicator is intended to encourage officials to score more by lowering enterprises' costs, promoting technological

innovation and adjusting industrial structures for energy and ecological security, according to Lu Zushan, the province's governor.

The coastal province, like most developed areas in the country, is suffering from a sharp conflict between energy shortages and a galloping economy. The average per capita GDP in Zhejiang exceeded US$3,400 in 2005, while 95% of its resources relied on imports or transfers from other areas in China.

The province has set a goal which requires the energy consumption per unit of GDP to decline 15% by 2010 from its level in 2005, Lu said.

Some government officials have been indifferent to energy conservation, as exemplified by their ignorance of energy wastage in government buildings they worked in every day. A survey showed that the daily per-capita electricity consumption by the provincial administration buildings in 2004 was nine times that of common residential buildings.

Later, an upgrade of the energy-saving measures in the buildings was introduced, including raising the temperatures of air conditioners and adopting central heating systems and power-saving lights.

(Asia Pulse/XIC)

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